5 reasons to rename your raw files
Why do you rename your source images? I’ve never renamed any RAW files.
I could probably go on for a while….
- Every photo should be uniquely identified, and camera-generated names don’t guarantee that happens. For example, _DSC1234 would repeat each time the camera passes 9999.
- Secondly, there’s nothing sacrosanct about the names added by the camera, so why not make it meaningful in a variety of contexts (eg Explorer or Finder) by adding the date and perhaps some text description?
- Third, it’s handy to provide clients with sequentially-numbered photos, rather than the jumbled alphanumeric file names generated by some cameras.
- Fourth, also giving clients sequentially-numbered photos means they don’t notice gaps and ask to see images which you may have deleted for whatever reason.
- Fifth, a scheme such as YYMMDD_1234 also helps you check the completeness of what’s in a folder. If the files are numbered 1-257, you know that you should have at least 257 pictures and that there’s a problem if 125, 126, 127 are missing.
I’m using an import renaming scheme that uses my initials, then the year the photo was taken and then a sequential import number that I reset to 1 with every new year, so a typical filename is “JU_2014_01234” (I don’t do more than 99,999 photos a year). This way, I have unique filenames over several cameras I import from, and if I upload a selection of photos for someone else to choose from, they usually only have to note the last 3 digits for a unique identification. And, I can easily move away one year’s photos for archiving.
Hi John,
Great advice on protecting your original raw images for long term archiving.
Derivative files have different requirements depending their use. The filename is the the most vulnerable metadata. Clients will rename them, social media may too (plus strip other metadata) and I too rename images for my own SEO. Derivatives connect to their original in the Lightroom catalog.
I just read another blog that has another take on renaming photos. They point out that using a more descriptive name helps SEO and therefore drives web traffic to the image.
Of course this requires more one-by-one naming prior to putting the image online. That also makes it harder to track back to your Lightroom catalog in the future, if you changed the name prior to posting. Still, something to think about…
http://digital-photography-school.com/optimize-photos-search-engines
I always include the shooters initials in the name too. For example, my images are “blj__” while my wife’s are “egj__.
This makes it easy for me to see who the shooter was, and the date taken, just by looking at the name.
Another benefit is that it helps find stolen images. It is surprising how many image thieves don’t even bother to change the file name…
Yes, good one, I don’t need that but I’d agree in principle.
I see that my original note truncated my naming, probably taking my brackets to be HTML code.
The naming sequence I use is (trying square brackets this time instead of angled):
blj_[date]_[seq]
For example: blj_20131017_001 would be the first photo I shot today.
Hi, I’ve tried to rename some files in my Lightroom’s library using name sequence RDF_AAAAMMGG_seq but sequential number don’t restart each day. How I can resolve it?
Thanks
I’ve heard that one before and would fundamentally disagree.
When files are exported and uploaded to the web, one can certainly load metadata into the filenames as part of LR’s export process. But it shouldn’t drive how you name files in your own archive.